>>24089635
>I don't think determinism addresses "why" at all
I really think it does mean that. From the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, determinism is "the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature".
>It merely states that all events are scripted and obey the script.
Again, there is a real difference between knowing what will happen and causing something it to happen.
>God does understand perfectly though. I may not understand where the ball will roll down the hill, but God created both the ball, the hill, the atmosphere, the laws of reality, etc. He knows the exact position of every electron in both ball and hill, and where the ball will go. He knew all of this before he created anything. That sounds like determinism to me
Yes, he does know all of that. A ball rolling down a hill IS a physically deterministic event, we agree. Human decision making is not the same, though. God created the conditions we exist within but gave us the ability to choose how we react to those conditions. He knows what we will choose, but so what? If you want to slap a label of "predetermined" on this, it's technically incorrect but also no longer matters to me -- it no longer has any serious consequences for Christian theology, though, so at this point I don't really care any longer.

To clarify the distinction, Calvinists make it sound as though God orchestrated events such that the elect MUST come to Christ and the damned MUST go to Hell, whereas I'm saying that unsaved people COULD have chosen to be saved, even if God knows whether or not they WILL choose to be.

Maybe you're leaning against some kind of implicit problem of evil thing here, where you're assuming God would never want to create someone who isn't saved, but that isn't the case. He respects and loves human beings too much to rob us of that choice.

Back | Go to board

Board:

/lit/

Thread:

>my favorite book of all time is Tao Te Ching by LaoziWhat type of person do you imagine?

>my favorite book of all time is Tao Te Ching by Laozi
What type of person do you imagine?